Algeria

>>> "George Pennefather" <poseidon at tinet.ie> 08/18 11:05 AM
>>>Hi,
Has anybody any views as to what is happening in Algeria.
Yes I do, if you mean over the last few years. I think that
what is hapening in Algeria is an extreme manifestation of
something that is bubbling below the surface in most Islamic
countries. It seems to me to be a very clear failure of the
nationalist movements to deliver on their promises
post-independence. As happens with most 'third world'
nationalist movements (because the power they have achieved
is limited and conditional), the regime cannot deliver on
any of its promises to the masses or solve any of the
country's development problems. The Islamic movements are
able to convince large sections of the people that the root
of the problems is the secular nature of these nationalsit
movements; i.e. they have abandoned the path of god and this
is what follows. The same thing is simmering in Palestine,
Egypt and other countries. In Syria, Libya and Iraq so far
the regimes have been able to suppress the radical Islamic
movements and there is no doubt that the Algerian regime
hoped to do the same thing, but they overestimated their
power, despite the amounts of brutality that were unleashed.
Really there are few good guys in a conflict like that, at
least from a leftist point of view.
Tahir